In a first of its kind, Madurai Railway Division is carrying new tractors from TAFE factory at Vadipatti here to Bangladesh in its goods train.
“Though Madurai Division has been transporting tractors from here to Jaipur, it is the first time that we are involved in transporting them to another country,” said Divisional Commercial Manager D.L. Ganesh.
The tractors were being loaded into 25 new modified goods (NMG) wagons on Thursday and the goods train is likely to leave for Benapole railway station in Bangladesh past midnight. “This rake alone will bring us a revenue of ₹23.16 lakh,” he added.
Officials from the division, led by Divisional Railway Manager V.R. Lenin, have been aggressively marketing the railway goods service among trade and industry bodies in southern districts for the last few months.
“We had carried 12 goods train loads of tractors in 2019-20 and made a revenue of ₹2.33 crore. This year, the revenue has gone up to ₹11.78 crore after 61 rakes were used to transport tractors till date,” he said.
Railway officials expect that they could get more goods for transport to Bangladesh from the southern parts of Tamil Nadu.
This is the first time that a goods train of Southern Railway is used to transport goods to another country.
